Dark Fire

The crux is that the vast majority of the mass of the universe seems to be missing. -William J. Broad

Cosmologists have a problem. According to their observations and calculations, our universe should have significantly more matter and energy than they are able to perceive. They have termed these mysterious forces as “dark matter” and “dark energy” though they frankly don’t know what either of these things might be. They estimate that dark matter and dark energy respectively make up as much as 26.8% and 68.3% of our known universe (together 95.1%!). The cosmos that our puny brains and science can currently observe and define makes up less than 5% of the composition of our universe.

In this regard, more than one hundred years ago, Rabbi Hirsch comments on the 3,000 year old passage in Deuteronomy 33:2. He touches on his own divine cosmological explanation, with a term the sages called “dark fire.” It is an unseen power that is responsible for everything in our universe (think of Star Wars’ “the Force”) and in my opinion, might even account for some of the mass and energy that modern science is unable to perceive or measure. However, what is most interesting about Rabbi Hirsch’s description is that man is the only creature that may actually have some say, some control, on how this unseen, elemental force plays a role in his life:

“Esh (fire) is the force that generates movement, change and life in all physical creations; the dark, invisible fire, as our Sages call it, through which the eternal, God-given laws for the universe are fulfilled. These laws operate in all creatures without their being aware of them, and independently of their will. But these same laws, established and willed by God, the Supreme Consciousness and Will, and operating through the almighty power of His will, are to work differently with man, the creature called upon to exercise moral free will. In the case of man, God’s Law is not to operate from within him, without his conscious will; it is to come to him from without, so that, out of his own free volition, he may absorb it in his mind and will.”

Rabbi Hirsch then draws a parallel between this dark fire and the Torah. He posits that the Torah is somehow “fire-become-law”, a humanly comprehensible insight and access into some of these elemental forces. By fulfilling God’s Law we can take conscious control of these powers as well as our own personal destinies.

We no longer need a Jedi Master to instruct us as to the workings of the universe. All its secrets might be found in the Torah.

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the memory of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, whose powerful commentary has accompanied us this entire year.